Adolescent age at first pregnancy is one of the single most important risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Adolescent women have higher rates of abortion, often this is utilized as a means of contraception. Adolescents also have a higher frequency of low birth weight and preterm births, as well as fetal and neonatal death(s). The important risk factors which have been shown to be associated with poor pregnancy outcomes in adolescents include biological and behavioral factors: inadequate prenatal care, maternal smoking, maternal drug and alcohol use, poor pregravid nutritional status, acute/chronic medical conditions, inadequate education, as well as shortened spacing (<two years) between successive pregnancies. Shortened interpregnancy intervals increase the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The association between birth spacing and pregnancy outcome may be related to biological factors such as, decreased uterine tonicity, depleted maternal nutritional reserves, and inadequate time to achieve physiological equilibrium prior to the next conception. One phenomenon which occurs in older women of reproductive age, and is associated with shortened interpregnancy intervals is reproductive compensation. This occurs as a result of perinatal loss in the previous pregnancy and the desire for women to replace that loss sooner. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the relationship between prior perinatal loss (abortion, fetal and neonatal death) and the time between successive pregnancies in adolescent women. This objective will be achieved using a population-based analysis. An adolescent cohort was assembled using the Missouri linked data set of live births, late fetal and infant deaths from 1978 through 1990.